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Tuesday, 23 August 2011

Turtles Candy

What's the first candy you remember making? Assuming we don't count concoctions like sugar mixed with food coloring, or a melted candy bar mashed into smithereens, the first candy I ever made were these simple Turtles.

Obviously I had some adult supervision (I was not, alas, a culinary child prodigy) but the great thing about Turtles is they're so easy, they give new meaning to the phrase "child's play." The recipe literally includes just three ingredients: toasted pecans, store-bought caramels, and chocolate. You melt your caramels and chocolate, drop them on top of pecan clusters, and then comes the most difficult step: waiting for them to set. Their simplicity, and the fact that they can be made entirely in the microwave, makes these a great "starter candy" for young cooks or anyone easing into the world of candy-making. And if they don't look exactly like what people imagine Turtles should look like, well, take comfort in the fact that there are more than 300 types of turtles in this world, and maybe yours are more spur-thighed tortoise than common box turtle. So there!